On National Stage, Coach Mark Helfrich Lets Oregon Roots Show

Mark Helfrich at Oregon’s football complex in front of a photo of the runner Steve Prefontaine, a fellow native of Coos Bay, Ore.CreditRyan Justin Kang for The New York Times

By Tim Rohan

Jan. 11, 2015

COOS BAY, Ore. — Mike Helfrich knew the curves of the bay and the nature of the ocean here so well that he could position his boat just so, not far from the others, fish for a few hours in a few spots and end the day with a boatload of crabs and fish.

One of his favorite spots was near the rocks, where fish would gather to seek shelter from predators. Other fishermen would avoid the area, fearing they would lose their expensive anchors. But Helfrich had fashioned his own anchor out of rebar, chain and tubing. It looked like a grappling hook, and he would toss it into the rocks and sit there reaping the benefits, having outsmarted everyone else.

Helfrich caught so many crabs and fish that he often just gave them away. He went around town handing them out to friends, neighbors, players at the local baseball field. Sometimes when he went to visit his youngest son, Mark, at his various stops as a college football coach, he would take some then, too.

Coos Bay is small, sleepy logging town on the Oregon coast, the kind of place where people like to raise families, the kind of place where you can forget the rest of the world. Eugene, the home of the University of Oregon, is about two hours north.

Mark Helfrich, the son, moved away years ago. He is the coach at Oregon now, and in only his second season, he is outsmarting his opponents as well, leading the Ducks to the sport’s biggest stage. Oregon will play Ohio State on Monday night at the Cowboys’ palatial football palace in Arlington, Tex., in the first College Football Playoff title game.

The locals here find it kind of funny. They still see Helfrich as the small-town guy from Coos Bay. Watching him on national television, they say he reminds them of his father, with his smarts and outgoing personality. His father worked at a bank, served on numerous boards and volunteered as an assistant football coach at Marshfield High School. His mother, Linda, was a schoolteacher.

Helfrich is as Oregon as they come. He was born in Medford. He grew up in Coos Bay. He went to Ducks games in Eugene. He played football at Southern Oregon in Ashland. And like most everyone else, he idolizes the track superstar Steve Prefontaine, who grew up in Coos Bay, attended Marshfield and died at 24 in an automobile accident.

Both of Helfrich’s parents died within the last four years, but he makes it back when he can. His father’s friend refurbished his old fishing boat and still uses it.

“It didn’t matter if you were a banker in a suit, or a logger or a farmer looking for a loan — everyone in the community trusted Mike,” said Kent Wigle, the former football coach at Marshfield. “That’s who Mark is, too.”

A Quick Study

Mark Helfrich was initially going to be a doctor.

When he graduated from Southern Oregon, as an undersize quarterback, he figured he was not talented enough to keep playing. He planned to go to medical school, become an orthopedic surgeon and find work as a team physician.

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A view of Coos Bay.CreditRyan Justin Kang for The New York Times

Helfrich was certainly smart enough. He was salutatorian of his high school class and a biology major at Southern Oregon, and he worked in student government in high school and college. While Helfrich was still deciding his future, he spent a season playing quarterback and coaching the offense of a team in Vienna. He returned with a decent-size playbook, his interest piqued, and soon caught his break. Mike Bellotti, Oregon’s coach at the time, hired him as a graduate assistant. Bellotti had known Helfrich since Oregon offered him a walk-on spot out of high school.

Oregon was, in some ways, Helfrich’s dream school. He had grown up going to football games at Autzen Stadium, playing catch with his older brother, John, in the parking lot. There was plenty of space. Oregon was still a middling program back then.

The university was known more for its track and field team. Distance runners like Prefontaine were the stars. Prefontaine grew up just a few blocks from the high school in Coos Bay. He trained on the town’s rolling hills. When he died in 1975, he was arguably Coos Bay’s most famous native son. Helfrich was a toddler at the time.

One break was all Helfrich needed.

When Dirk Koetter, one of Bellotti’s assistants, left to coach Boise State and then Arizona State, he took Helfrich with him to both stops. When Dan Hawkins, another former Boise State assistant, was hired at Colorado, he took Helfrich with him, too. When Chip Kelly took over for Bellotti at Oregon, Bellotti recommended he hire Helfrich as his offensive coordinator.

At each of his stops, Helfrich impressed his peers with his ability to quickly process concepts in his head. Boise State and Arizona State ran a vertical passing scheme; Colorado ran a mix of multiple sets; Kelly ran his famed up-tempo spread — and Helfrich mastered them all. He noticed things on film that others needed three tries to catch. Then he simplified them for his quarterbacks to digest. He once used checkers to teach a quarterback blocking schemes.

“He always did a good job of not making you feel dumb,” said Rudy Carpenter, one of his quarterbacks at Arizona State.

But Helfrich always seemed to be the smartest one in the room. He engaged his quarterbacks in deep discussions and peppered them with trivia questions on history, geography and politics. He watched the BBC in his office. He used German phrases.

“He’s an excellent football coach,” Hawkins said. “But if you were to put him on the U.N. council and send him to Europe, he’d be fine. He would be great, actually.”

Relaxed and Low-Key

Those who work with Helfrich say he does not have an ego. It might be a Coos Bay thing. The Helfrich boys chopped wood as part of their chores, and they had to report home promptly whenever their father whistled for them. He was a no-nonsense kind of man.

“Coos Bay is — you go to work with your lunch pail and you do your thing, and you keep everything under the radar,” said Floyd Montiel, one of Helfrich’s closest friends from back home. “We don’t show off. We go about our business, do what we do. And at the end of the day, you’re still yourself. That’s who Mark is.”

At his junior prom, Helfrich was the starting quarterback who was embarrassed to be named prom king.

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A photo of Helfrich in his No. 14 high school jersey on the wall of a former coach at Marshfield High School in Coos Bay.CreditRyan Justin Kang for The New York Times

“He was red from ear to ear,” said his date, Molly McCarthy.

Two years ago, when Kelly left for the N.F.L. and Helfrich was promoted to replace him, it seemed he had been handed the keys to a barely used Lamborghini. Kelly had installed the highly successful offense and changed the program’s losing culture. Nike and Phil Knight had ensured that Oregon would have cutting-edge jerseys and facilities. The majority of the veteran coaching staff was staying in place.

Other big-time coaches might have felt compelled to wield their power and put their mark on the program, but Helfrich kept everything mostly the same.

In his two seasons as coach, Oregon has gone 24-3. His assistants and players say the program is assuming his image; it is just not very obvious.

Helfrich drives his assistants to lunch. He picks up loose trash in the locker room after games. He takes his time and gives thoughtful answers during in-game interviews. His players call him a genius, and he does not even call his own plays.

Ever since Helfrich was young, he has offset his accomplishments with quick-witted humor. His players describe it as dry and sarcastic, often self-deprecating; his lack of hair makes him an easy target. He essentially jokes with them the way they do with one another.

When practice gets too monotonous, Helfrich makes coaches run routes on one another. He once started a faux Heisman campaign for the Oregon walk-on Brigham Stoehr, a scout-team lineman, after Stoehr caught a touchdown pass in practice.

“We all feel more relaxed,” the fifth-year senior lineman Hroniss Grasu said. “We love Chip. I love Chip to death. But when Chip was here, it was more like a business. He wasn’t as close with us as Coach Helfrich.”

Anyone who played for Helfrich over the years has surely heard his jokes about being from Coos Bay. He says he vacations there, for instance. But it’s all in good fun; his players can tell he’s proud of his hometown.

“Just a lot of great people,” Helfrich said of Coos Bay. “Blue collar. High integrity. ‘Do what they say they’re going to do’ type of people. A bunch of great friends, great parents. They all shaped who I am.”

Helfrich sometimes cites Prefontaine while addressing the team. He has a picture of Prefontaine in a Marshfield jersey on his play sheet and a portrait of him outside his office. It is a close-up of his face, his eyes fixed on something. Helfrich uses it as a metaphor, how Prefontaine kept his eyes on the scoreboard and constantly measured himself against himself.

Helfrich reluctantly posed in front of it for a picture last week. On Monday, those beyond the football world will be introduced to him, the small-town guy from Coos Bay.